The storm raged, screamed, whept, and thundered loud in the late hours of the night. The creaking, knurling trees looking like fingers ready to snatch you from where you stood. Rain coming down hard in sheets, impossible to see more than a few inches ahead of yourself. The intermittent flashes help but leave behind the after images of the deep forest that waits to strangle any light that finds its way into its maw. The short shallow anxiety filled breath of a young man about to change his life. His chest tightened, his being near drowning from the downpour. On one side the sweet cinnamon scent of his mothers apple pie waiting for morning. The warmth of his room waiting for the sun to shine and wake his house. The other a cold dark and lonely trail ahead towards his dream.
The long slogging step into the abyss of the forest clothing around him. The heavy feelings of regret that press upon his shoulders. The weight of decisions that will bring his family grief at his departure. At his decision to leave with no word. His decision to put his life on the line for a profession he has no idea if he'll be good in, but knowing this is his only chance at it. The long trek through the icy sheets of rain. The decisions of it all to leave and go out and make his name. All coming down upon him to make him shake in not just cold but in anxiety. To wonder if his decision to move forward with his life is worth it. The unease gnawing at him. The second, third and fourth time of him wondering if he's doing right by himself. For he knows his family will weep at his cold bed in the rising of the sun. For this is his chance to fight back at the enemy of man. To fight against monsters that haunt us all to the corners of the world. To be the huntsman he know and wishes to be. The shadows of the forest and the curtain of rain finally block his childhood home, as he descends into the black on his new journey damn the consequences